Obama Obicycle Version 2.0

Thanks to the kindness of a stranger - in this case yesterday's generous drive-by donation of Shepard Fairey Obama "Hope" stickers - the Obama Obicycle has been upgraded.

Version 2.0 is ready for a test drive this lovely Indian-summer afternoon. It's hard to imagine that admiring Obicycle fans could be more enthusiastic, but we shall see.

Tales of Obama Obicycle Paparazzi and More

Riding around town on the Obama Obicycle continues to be a treat - hoots, hollers and words of appreciation at every turn. Here are a couple of my latest noteworthy encounters.

Yesterday as I was on the Obicycle returning to my condominium complex I noticed a red Honda Civic in my rear-view mirror turning into the driveway behind me. My complex is small enough - only 19 units - that I recognize all the resident vehicles at a glance. This one wasn't familiar, so I assumed that it was someone coming to pay a visit to one of my neighbors.

Oddly enough, the car caught up with me and kept pace, traveling right by my side. Yikes! This was not something a typical visitor would do. Suspicious, I decided not to turn into my parking space, and, instead, came to a sudden stop.

The red Civic stopped too, and, before I could register my complaint, the woman on the passenger side of the car rolled down her window and asked, "is it okay if we take your picture?" "You bet," I replied, suppressing my inclination to give her and her companion a piece of my mind, since I had just come within a second of ramming them broadside!

My second Obicycle tale of the weekend has to do with an incident that occurred while I was returning from the celebration of the first birthday of my grandnephew, Isaac Merlin.

As with many of you, I have allowed myself to become hopeful these last few days - hopeful that we soon will be living once again in a country led by men and women of intelligence and good will, who will work to improve the quality of our lives and the lives of other people with whom we share this glorious, but all-too fragile, planet. Isaac's birthday celebration reminded me of how important that hope had become for me.

On my way home on 8th Street, on the Obicycle, of course, a man - whose name I later learned was Jeff - called out to me from his Prius waiting at a traffic light behind me and asked, "Where are you going? I have some Obama stickers that I'd like to give you." I told him that I was heading in the general direction of Emory, not having a clue what he had in mind for me to do. "I'll pull in front of you. Follow me," he directed.

With that I tailed Jeff - pedaling as fast as I could - to his house off of Charles Allen Drive. When I caught up with him in his driveway he fetched a backpack and retrieved a handful of Obama stickers he had printed out with designs by Shepard Fairey. Some had the retro "Rock the Vote" logo. Others had the - now iconic - Barack Obama "Hope" portrait. Jeff had liked the signs I had made for my bike and, as a result, thought that I was just the person who could make good use of the stickers he had printed.

These offers of hope for our future from Jeff - on the occasion of Isaac's birthday - could not have been more appropriate.

More than eight years after this post first ran, the folks at Artsy asked if I would include a link to their Shepard Fairey page. I'm happy to oblige.

Obama Obicycle (Art) Therapy

If you are like me - which I sincerely hope is not the case - you struggle at times to continue to hold your fellow citizens in even modest regard. Being subjected to daily sound bites from the refrigerator-magnet word salad that masquerades as a Sarah Palin campaign speech makes that struggle even harder.

But take heart, dear friends! Hope is at hand for sufferers of TCCS (Terminally Cynical Curmudgeon Syndrome), like me. The Obama Obicycle has now been demonstrated, in limited clinical trials, to drastically reduce the symptoms of TCCS. It is rumored that a full-fledged cure will be announced the first week in November.

Honestly, it continues to be throughly therapeutic for me to bike around Atlanta with my Obama bike-trailer rig. The first bicycle trip of the day took me to the High Museum of Art to attend a member preview of The Louvre and the Masterpiece, which opens Sunday and runs through September of next year. (The photo accompanying this post is a subtly altered version of Johannes Vermeer's The Astronomer which, in my mind, is the highpoint of the exhibition.)

As has become customary with the Obicycle, I was serenaded by the tooting of horns and exhorted with the waving of hands as I pedaled my way to the museum in Midtown. When I arrived there I intentionally made a circuit of the wonderful plaza created with the completion of the Renzo Piano addition to the High a few years ago, before moving on to find a less conspicuous place to lock up. My showy entrance on the scene had the effect of attracting a bit of attention, so, as I walked up to the Weiland Pavilion to tender my admission ticket, a number people - visitors and staff - approached me to congratulate me on the Obicycle, to share their hopes and concerns about the election, and to request photo opportunities with me and the bike.

As I had promised the admiring fans, after I finished viewing the exhibit, I fetched the Obicycle and returned the plaza to be photographed. Since I needed to retrieve my messenger bag from the check counter, I left the Obicycle unattended for a few minutes while I ran inside. (I imagine that its conspicuousness makes it relatively theft-proof, at least for short periods of time, although I do worry about McCain-Palin saboteurs.) When I returned, much to my surprise, a small group of tourists had gathered to take turns photographing each other posing with the Obicycle.

What a kick I got out of that display! Maybe my days of TCCS suffering are behind me, after all.

Cheering Throngs Greet Maiden Cruise of Obama Obicycle

The newly christened Obama Obicycle made its inaugural voyage yesterday with Captain Marc Merlin at the helm and first mate - and photographer - Hillary Felker at his side. They came up to speed as they exited the tranquil waters of Lake Claire harbor Tuesday morning and carefully steered their way through the narrow, but not treacherous, straits of the City of Decatur, with the Dekalb Farmers Market as their intended destination and first scheduled port of call.

The weather was near perfect and there was nary a suburban frat boy pirate to be seen, as they navigated the waterways of E. Ponce de Leon Avenue, basking in the toots of horns from admiring fellow seafarers passing by.

Nautical metaphors aside, it was, in fact, difficult to pedal more than a block or two on the Obama Obicycle without being greeted with a shout-out of approval or a hearty thumbs up. People in Atlanta are really pumped about the prospect of an Obama victory in the upcoming election and they are happy to share their enthusiasm.

On our return home from the market, Hillary and I paid a call at the Dekalb Obama office - 2752 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue - and rousted the workers and volunteers there to come out and take a look at our bicycle convoy. Needless to say, they were impressed, although it does remain to be seen whether the photo they took of us will find its way to the national campaign website. We can only hope.

Since this morning I have taken the Obama Obicycle out on a number of trips, and I can honestly report that I receive enthusiastic shows of support wherever I go. This kind of encouragement tells me that maybe - just maybe - we will soon have national leaders and national policies that we can be proud of once again. That is, of course, only if we remain focused these last few weeks of the campaign and only if we remain determined to make sure that our votes - and those of our friends and families - are both cast and counted.

Changing Gears - My Obama Obicycle

Well, today was the deadline in Georgia to register to vote for the November election, so, according to plan, I lifted my cloak of (ostensible) bipartisan invisibility and switched my bike trailer from its alter-ego guise as an unassuming, mild-mannered "register-to-vote-here" mobile voter registration station to its bold, battle-ready incarnation as a partisan Democrat campaign vehicle - one that I am calling the "Obama Obicycle".

A five-minute test drive around my neighborhood was greeted mostly with honking horns and howls of approval. How sweet it is!

Nevertheless, a car-full of young men, from the suburbs I imagine, one flaunting a McCain-Palin t-shirt, apparently on their way to Little Five Points to sample the pleasures of the degenerate, left-leaning popular culture of which their candidates most certainly disapprove, called out, accusing me of consorting with terrorists, encouraged by the latest Sarah Palin initiated "gutter politics" attack.

What to say? "You guys could have been friendly (I had waved to them), or you could have been assholes. You decided to be assholes, just like your know-nothing attack-dog vice-presidential candidate. Do you have any idea what part of town you are in? Welcome to Atlanta and good luck!"